SHORT STUFF

Size doesn’t matter to a fighter pilot

COL. ROBERT “SHORTY” RANKIN USAF, JAMES P. BUSHA

I WAS ONLY 5 FEET 4 INCHES TALL when I graduated from flight training in 1943, but my instructors saw something gigantic inside of me. I was one of 60 Second Lieutenants selected out of 400 to go into fighters—P-47 Thunderbolts to be exact. When I first saw the airplane I would fly in combat, my only thought was, “Why in the heck did I ever ask for this behemoth!” But after I flew the Jug for awhile, I really liked it and thought it was a piece of cake to fly—easy to handle, reliable and stable. There was nothing out there that could beat the Jug in a dive; not even a rock! What I admired most about it though were those eight .50-caliber machine guns that stuck out…

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Flight Journal (Digital) - 1 Issue, November/December 2024

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